


for quite some time

by iridescentOracle (iridescentOwl)



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: (are y'all telling me that's not a tag already??? what even ao3), Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Valentine's Day, accidental date, it's not even angsty really?, mention of past jack/parse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-15
Packaged: 2018-03-12 23:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3359930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iridescentOwl/pseuds/iridescentOracle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It starts as a joke. Neither of them has a date, or anyone they're interested in (as far as they'll admit); their three Hausmates are all in the same situation, as are Lardo, Dex, and Nursey, and someone (Bitty assumes it was either Ransom or Holster) had the bright idea to suggest going on "bro-dates" in pairs. Shitty promptly vetoed the name in favor simply of "dates," but had otherwise fully supported the idea, and immediately called dibs on going with Lardo. She agreed with minimal eye-rolling."</p><p>In which Jack and Bitty go on a platonic date. Which totally stays that way. No feelings are revealed. Nothing of the sort.</p><p>(...or not.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	for quite some time

It starts as a joke. Neither of them has a date, or anyone they’re interested in (as far as they’ll admit); their three Hausmates are all in the same situation, as are Lardo, Dex, and Nursey, and someone (Bitty assumes it was either Ransom or Holster) had the bright idea to suggest going on “bro-dates” in pairs. Shitty promptly vetoed the name in favor simply of “dates,” but had otherwise fully supported the idea, and immediately called dibs on going with Lardo. She agreed with minimal eye-rolling.

As he gets his coat, Bitty looks around around for Chowder before remembering the third frog was not, in fact, dateless. He had instead left over an hour before to meet Farmer, after showing up at the Haus wanting last-minute approval on his choice of outfit and date location.

Bitty still doesn’t entirely understand why Nursey and Dex agreed to pair up, rather than one going with him and one with Jack, or simply both bowing out. Not that he’s complaining, certainly, and upside, they haven’t actually started fighting (verbally) yet, so that’s definitely a plus.

Then again, they’ve been glaring daggers at each other for the last ten minutes and ignoring everyone else, so… he’s not _complaining_ , but Bitty is _very_ ready to get out of the Haus and more specifically out of their way. Also he’s looking forward to getting a latte when they finally make it to the café.

He hints as much to Jack, who seems mildly amused as much as anything, but Jack also grabs his jacket and heads for the door. Their escape path is blocked by Ransom and Holster, who are currently locked in a debate over what restaurant the team will be meeting at for dinner. After a minute, though, Bitty successfully manages to shove them just far enough over that he can open the door, then steps outside, Jack on his heels, and immediately shivers.

Bitty’s teeth start to chatter as they set out. He already regrets going along with this scheme. Jack looks at him, amusement now clear on his face.

“Cold?”

“We can’t all be Canadian hockey robots, Jack. _Some_ of us think _sixteen degrees below freezing_ is not weather for gallivanting outdoors.”

“It’s barely minus nine.”

“In _Kelvin_ , maybe!”

Jack actually laughs at that. “Sure, Bittle. Canada officially switched last spring, didn’t you hear?”

“How much longer, anyway?” Bitty asks.

“…We’ve been walking for three minutes. And you know where we’re going. You go more often than anyone on campus.”

“I do not! And just because _you_ don’t appreciate a good cup of coffee—oh _wait_ , who _jumped over a snowbank_ last week to ask if I wanted to get coffee? Because I seem to recall that being _you_.”

Jack’s cheeks are pink, but Bitty’s pretty sure it must be from the cold.

* * *

Eventually, they make it to the café, all limbs intact and un-frostbitten. Bitty orders a peppermint mocha for himself, then changes it to two when Jack starts to chirp him. Jack grumbles, but Bitty’s already paying for it, so when it’s ready he drinks it anyway.

And loves it. He doesn’t say so, of course, but he also doesn’t disagree when Bitty says they should come get these again sometime when it’s not literally freezing, which for Jack is basically the same as admitting that he liked it.

The café is super-romantically decorated, of course; hearts and flowers everywhere, and Bitty makes a joke about how long Shitty would already have been ranting about the “’allosexuality-as-default implicit’ in the… overt… whatever.”

Jack actually laughs and corrects him. “And alloromanticism, remember?” Bitty blinks in surprise—he hadn’t realized Jack was even in the Haus for that conversation—but Jack reminds him they’ve been friends since they were frogs. Apparently Shitty gets worked up about it every year, which, Bitty admits with amusement, should really not be a surprise. And, according to Jack, he used to be even _worse_.

“…and he only laid off about heteronormativity after—um.”

“Hmm?”

“Um. Nothing.” Jack winces slightly.

“…okay?” Bitty is confused.

Jack shrugs. It looks rather as if he’s going for _nonchalant_ and hitting more along the lines of _totally definitely nonchalant here nothing to see move along_.

Bitty starts to smile. “…Jack, did you tell him off or something like that? You said he let up on that ‘after’ something, is there some story I’ve missed here?”

“—uh. No. Nothing like that.” Jack’s face is odd. If Bitty didn’t know better, he’d think Jack was trying to put on his emotionless-hockey-robot expression and _failing_.

“I—Um. He stopped lecturing me about it after I… told him I…” Jack stops without finishing his sentence, and there’s a sense of tension around them that wasn’t there a minute before. Bitty is just about to try to change the subject in hopes of clearing the air when Jack takes a deep breath and keeps going.

“I… told him about Kent. And me.” Jack pauses again. “And how he was, um. Kind of. ‘Preaching to the choir’.”

Bitty isn’t sure he’s still breathing. Had—did Jack just— _oh_.

“I—I’m sorry, I didn’t realize—I didn’t mean to—” Bitty falters, unsure how to finish his sentence.

“No, it’s. I mean.” Jack shrugs again, even more stiffly. “I… we—It’s been a long time. We didn’t want—I… don’t talk about it much. You didn’t know.”

Now Bitty winces. “…Um. About that. I… didn’t _know_ , not for sure, but… I…” Bitty accidentally mimics Jack’s shrug from moments before. “…I went up to my room, that night he was there, to make sure my door was locked, and I was going to come check on you since you’d left the party kinda abruptly and all, and we’d been talking and then I got all star-struck over him, and I wanted to apologize, but then I was there outside your door and I… I heard you talking? Or I heard _him_ talking _to_ you, and it… I wasn’t _sure_ , but… I did guess.”

Jack’s face is unreadable, but Bitty isn’t sure how much of that is _Jack_ and how much is Bitty’s own apparent inability to look Jack in the eye right now.

“I… I wanted to ask you, or to tell you that I’d heard, but I’d already sorta invaded your privacy enough, and it felt too much like prying to say anything you might feel like you had to explain… I didn’t tell anyone, of course! I wouldn’t do that—I _won’t_ ever do that, not even that you _had_ a… that you were… with him, much less that you _still_ like—well. I mean. I won’t, I swear.”

Jack stares blankly at him. “…what.”

“I—Wasn’t that—I couldn’t hear what you were saying, but, um, you said something and then he laughed and said he’d missed you too?” Bitty’s voice is barely audible at this point. “I thought—or I assumed, I guess—you were saying you still liked him. Or something.”

“Um. No. We didn’t. I mean. We talked but. Nothing happened. I didn’t—I wasn’t—I don’t. Anymore. Not—not him.”

“Oh. Oh, Jack, I’m so sorry! Here you are, stuck hanging out with me and there’s someone else you like? I mean, I thought there was but he couldn’t—or something, I don’t know—do they go here? Do I know them?”

Jack looks slightly unsure. “Um. Yes. And… yes?” Now he sounds doubtful. Bitty tries not to look visibly disappointed. “So who is it? Oh, Camilla Collins? You went to that dance with her a couple times, right? She did sound awfully nice.”

“Um, no. He’s—uh.”

“Oh, you said I know— _oh_ , Jack, is he on the team? I thought I had it bad and here you are, you’ve probably known him even longer—oh _no_ , I didn’t just say that! I’m so sorry, that’s not the point, I didn’t mean to bring it up… ”

“Oh. You… I. Never mind.”

“What? No, it’s—don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine, really. I mean, you don’t have to talk about him if you don’t want to, I didn’t mean to pry, but you don’t need to make this about me. We can change the subject.”

“It—um.” Jack lets out a breath. “…Never mind.”

Bitty doesn’t exactly want to take it back, but he still does just that. “No, no, I mean, if you wanted to talk about it we can.”

Jack looks down at the table. “Um. It’s. You said—not to make it about you, but. It… already was.”

Bitty is completely lost. He looks at Jack, certain the confusion is plain on his face.

“It—He—I thought—” Jack shakes his head sharply like he’s pushing the sentence away, then tries again.

“I… hoped. When they planned this. That you… and I… would—But you—it’s—I—” He stops again, still apparently struggling to find the words he wants, but against his own better judgment, Bitty pieces together what Jack is trying to say.

“Do—Jack, do you mean—he’s… you mean… _me_?”

Jack looks at Bitty slowly, and Bitty suddenly recognizes the look that so often appears in Jack’s eyes when they’re talking. He’s seen it in the mirror enough times when he catches himself thinking about Jack, hasn’t he?

“I… well. This was not how I expected today to go, I must admit.” Bitty starts to smile at Jack. “…I can’t say I mind, though.” They start to lean towards each other—not that there was much distance left between them anyway—but remember in time both that they’re in public, and that their still-full coffees are very close to starting to spill. Bitty laughs a little, and Jack smiles, and without needing to discuss it, they stand up simultaneously and head out.

If they hold hands on the way back to the Haus, it’s entirely because it’s still below freezing out and gloves only do so much, and Bitty’s coffee is not large enough to warm both his hands satisfactorily. Obviously. Not that they do, anyway.

* * *

Bitty pauses just inside the door. “…So, did you have any ideas about what you’d like to do? Since our plans sort of changed and—!”

Jack does. His plans involve very little talking for a while. Bitty likes these plans quite a lot.

* * *

Eventually, somehow, they wind up in Bitty’s room, sitting on his bed together. Bitty laughs suddenly, reaching under his bed for a moment, then pulls his arm back holding a thing of chocolates in red-and-pink wrappers, a bag of candy hearts, and three little cardboard heart-shaped boxes holding yet more chocolate.

“I was planning to wait until everything went on clearance tomorrow, but there was an early sale when I went for groceries yesterday, and it was actually pretty good. And now we have these, so… want some? And maybe we could watch a movie or something?”

Jack does, and they do.

* * *

Their Hausmates finally arrive home, en masse, having met for dinner at a restaurant just off-campus as per the original plan. They are highly amused (though not surprised) when Shitty comes back downstairs grinning with a double thumbs-up, and settle on going upstairs one at a time to minimize the risk of spoiling picture opportunities.

Not that they probably needed to worry. As they each discover in turn, Jack is curled around Bitty, face buried in Bitty’s hair, one arm acting as Bitty’s pillow and the other resting on top of him. Bitty’s head is nestled under Jack’s chin, his face against Jack’s chest, and his own visible arm is wrapped around Jack, all effectively adding up to an unconscious hug. Both of them are sound asleep, and they make an _utterly_ adorable sight.

Really, the only _nice_ thing to do is make sure Jack and Bitty themselves don’t miss out on it, and if their friends are anything, it’s _nice_. After all, they planned this whole thing in the first place, and just look how well that turned out.

**Author's Note:**

> cross-posted from tumblr, this one was a prompt from an anon: "ok ok ok so jack/bitty do valentines in a super cliched way"
> 
> betaed, as always, by the invaluable and incredibly wonderful [sarah](http://jenesaispourquoi.tumblr.com) [mutuisanimis](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mutuisanimis).
> 
> title from taylor swift's "stay stay stay"
> 
> also sorry this took so long! happy valentine's day and i hope y'all had a lovely one whether with your datemate or alone (and to everyone but especially those of us on the ace/aro spectrums: happy discount chocolate day a few hours early~)
> 
> (ETA: this was written before the posting of Parse III; i have chosen to leave it up as that is hopefully clear from the text itself, but just to be safe: this in no way represents my view of kent's canon personality/their canon relationship, and is not meant to be read as such.)


End file.
